


Lost Boy

by ellebun



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Happy Ending, Korean Keith (Voltron), M/M, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Songfic, Traveling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 11:46:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9180145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellebun/pseuds/ellebun
Summary: Environmental science major Keith loves one thing and one thing only: the earth. He’s been known to get into physical fights with people over global warming, and spends most of his time outdoors alone taking in the natural world. He’s on a study abroad trip for an environmental class along with Lance, a popular jock and geology major. Due to certain events, Keith hates him from the beginning -  and that’s *before* he finds out his father owns one of the hugest oil companies on the grid.-	If you try to kill a bee Keith will henceforth try to kill you-	Lance can sing apparently-	Shiro and professor Allura Arus are definitely a thing-	Keith remembers things from his past-	And he hates planes





	

After waking up dead early to meet at the bus stop resulted in waiting an extra fifteen minutes thanks to a student being late –  
After a two-hour drive to the airport resulted in having to stop three times because the same student was getting carsick –  
After baggage claim resulted in, surprise – the SAME student being questioned about ‘mysterious liquids’ in his bag for 20 minutes –  
Finally, FINALY it was time to sit in the plane boarding area. Miraculously, the Kent University study abroad class somehow made it in time for their flight to Hawaii with 10 minutes to spare – but that didn’t make Environmental Science major Keith Kogane any less annoyed at the situation. Usually loudness didn’t bother him so much, but this would be the first plane he’s been on since he was four. Not to mention, he seemed to be the only one irritated by all of the earlier incidents (which in turn, made him more irritated.)  
The same guy who committed every annoying interruption was chattering loudly with his smiling friends, which consisted of about, everyone in the class. This irritated Keith more, considering today was the first time the study abroad class actually met in person (meaning the guy must be pretty popular around campus.) Maybe he’d get more friends if he started causing issues for other people, too.  
“Alright everyone, settle down!” Professor Arus’s voice roared over the chitter chatter. “There’s only a few minutes before boarding.”  
Professor Arus, full name Allura Arus, was one of the group instructors assigned to manage the trip and teach. She wore comfortable dress clothes, silver glasses, and a tight bun that complimented her strikingly beautiful oval face. She, along with Dr. Coran who had similar professional attire combined with a weird mustache, were leading two separate classes. Coran was teaching a geology course, and Allura an environmental science one – which Keith was taking. Over all, with the two classes combined there were about 40 students involved. When Keith had signed up, there had only been one class going with ten people. Oh how things can so appallingly develop.  
“Settle down now,” Professor Arus ordered, “Our flight will be boarding soon. Have your tickets ready, and please – please try not to be problematic. Especially you, Lance.”  
The classes chuckled noisily as the guy known as Lance crossed his arms and turned a bright shade of pink.  
“WHAT?” Lance groaned, as his classmates teased him more, “It’s not like I’m going to CRASH the pl—”  
he was cut off by a small hand slapping across his mouth, followed by a few bystanders giving the group apprehensive glances from their seats.  
“LANCE!” the owner of the hand hissed, “Security is already watching you because of earlier – you can’t SAY that!”  
“Oh, please Pidge,” Lance rolled his eyes at the small glasses-wearing student, “they already had it out for me the moment they chose me for a ‘random’ security check. And on top of that, how was I supposed to know bringing organic honey on a plane was forbidden?” Pidge just sighed and started complaining about Lance having a honey problem – which led to him saying it was necessary to keep his “velvet voice” beautiful.  
Keith knew Pidge from a lab that they had together last year. He felt envious of them for having friends attending the trip in the other class, but was confused as to how one of these ‘friends’ could be this Lance guy. Pidge seemed like a pretty rational human when they worked together – intelligent, humorous, witty – but if they were friends with this moron?  
“Ugh,” Lance groaned, giving up on the thought of hanging out with Pidge at all over the class timespan.  
It was only Hawaii. It wasn’t that big of a deal; some may even say it’s stupid for a study abroad class to simply be placed across the country. But, since the earthquakes finally settled down, Hawaii has become a hotspot for scientists and studies across the world. Not that it matters to Keith either way. After growing up in Pennsylvania (aka, massive corn land,) anywhere would qualify as ‘studying abroad.’  
Soon enough the boarding bell rang, and everyone got up to load the plane.  
“Okay students,” Dr. Coran’s voice boomed, “enter single filed and remember to be respectful to other passengers. You’re all adults here, so I shouldn't have to say much more than that.”  
‘Sure we are,’ Keith thought sarcastically, as he led the front of the line onto the plane. He was starting to sweat nervously at the thought of flying a few thousand feet off of the ground – over water – in giant loud flying bus.  
‘As long as the idiot isn’t anywhere near me, I’ll be fine,’ he consoled himself, breathing heavily one last time before composing and sitting in his seat – which just so happened to be directly by a window.  
‘Lovely.’  
Dr. Coran congratulated him for getting a ‘good seat’ as he walked past to sit in his own. Keith forced out a “yeah” as he sat down, staring out the window and strapping his seatbelt on extra tightly.  
‘Great. This is fine,’ slightly heavy breaths started escaping his mouth, ‘now if we crash I can watch a picturesque scene as we all plummet to our imminent deaths.’  
More sweat started trickling down his back as he clenched his fists and continued to stare wide eyed out the window, not even noticing when someone sat down next to him.  
“Hey,” the person’s voice echoed. Keith didn’t comprehend it at first, lost in a world of anxiousness. “Hey… Keith!” it called again.  
Slowly, the raven haired boy came back to reality, and turned his head to the left – dreading what cruel joke the universe was apparently playing on him.  
“What’s up, man? Looks like were plane buddies this time around!” the boy next to him bubbled, receiving nothing but a blank stare from Keith.  
Lance. The loud, accident prone, annoying, Lance just so happened to get the seat right flipping next to him on the entire bloody plane. Why was he not surprised?  
“366 Seats, And You Get Sat Next To Me – ” Keith mumbled ineligibly as he shifted uncomfortably, “— can’t even SEE anyone else from our Entire God Damn Class and here YOU are?”  
Lance strained towards the other boy to hear the mumbles, “Keith? Dude. I can’t make out a word you’re saying, the plane engine is too—”  
“How do you know my name?” the question came out as harshly as Keith intended it to.  
Lance looked at him in evident confusion.  
“Are you kidding me?” he blurted, in a light hearted tone.  
Keith was not kidding.  
“We were in the same orientation class last year? And the same math class? And the same English class?” his voice started to sound vexed as more blank stares were aimed at him. “I sat next to you and when we did peer reviews – you reviewed almost all of my papers –”  
“Doesn’t ring a bell,” Keith snapped, obviously not caring to give it extra thought.  
“Well, whatever,” Lance pointed to the window that had been torturing Keith internally since he sat down, “I was just wondering - can I have the window seat maybe? See, I always have to give it to my sister when we fly somewhere and I was really looking forward to – ”  
“Nope,” Keith boldly interrupted once again. Screw the fact that he didn’t want the seat in the first place – there was no way he was doing any favors for a pretentious jock like this guy. Everything that he did irritated him. No wonder he was going on earlier, pretending that he knew him before. Of course he just wanted something from him.  
“…No?” Lance mused, obviously not used to hearing the word.  
“No, You Cannot Have—” Keith jolted stiffly when the plane started moving, “— MySeat.”  
Lance looked at him, more curiously than disappointed, “Are you okay?”  
“— Yes.”  
“Are you sure? Not afraid of flying or anything, are you? Because you don't look so—“  
“Please stop talking to me,” Keith cracked, gripping the arm rest between them, “we’re about to take off, so it isn't like we can even change seats now—”  
“So what?” Lance interrupted, “It isn't like we can’t talk or anything.”  
Keith didn’t expect him to say that so it took a moment for him to respond, “And it also isn’t like I want to talk to you.”  
Lance’s eye twitched.  
“Alright dude – I don't know what I did to you, but all you’re giving me is sass and I am not the person you want on your bad side,” despite the threatening words Lance’s voice was still light. This, of course, just annoyed Keith all the more. That, and the fact that the plane was seriously getting loud.  
“If you think having one less entitled idiot disliking me bothers me at all, you would be gravely mistaken,” Keith said, trying hard to not make it completely obvious that he was sweating and dying internally and all he wanted was for Lance to shut up and for the plane to stop ascending from the ground and to get-a-different-seat maybe you know, on-the-ground –  
“Entitled?” Lance’s tone finally shifted, “Who the hell do you think you are? From any outside perspective you’re always the—“  
“HOLY. SHIT.” Keith shrilled, interrupting his rebuke. This was it. They were in the air, and despite being surrounded by a ton of people and mentally preparing for this exact moment, he was panicking.  
“You ARE afraid,” Lance stifled a laugh, momentarily interrupting Keith’s breakdown.  
“HOLY SHIT WILL YOU SHUTUP? Mother HECK, we’re tilting, why are we tilting – oh my GOD I cant see the-flipping-GROUND ANYMORE—” Keith continued to spout as the other boy assessed that he actually was freaking out.  
“Shit, just calm down dude,” Lance cooed, trying to sound calm, “we’re going to be leveled in a few seconds – just stop looking out the damn window and breathing so fast, what do you want to hyperventilate?!” Keith was trying to calm down, but it’s a little hard when your body is telling you that you’re going to die. Needless to say, the panicking was only getting worse.  
Before it developed further, Lance reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of string headphones. Keith didn’t even have a chance to rebel as the other boy shoved them into his ears and hastily wrapped his toned arm around his head, pulling Keith towards his chest – imminently blocking him from seeing and hearing anything that was happening. Keith was stunned and wanted nothing more than to shove the random person he just met today away –and to tell him off for pitying and trying to help him – but the panicking was stopping. Rather, he was still frozen like a deer in headlights, but it was working. Keith could do nothing but lean limply into Lance’s grip, silently appreciating the feeling of safety it brought over him.  
This lasted for about ten minutes, until Keith was completely calm and resonating in the feeling of no longer anticipating fiery sudden death. He soon felt one of the headphones being removed from his ear.  
“Um,” Lance muttered, causing Keith to flinch at the close proximity his voice was in relation to his ear. “Keith, not sure if you wanted me to tell you – but we’re leveled now and it isn’t as loud as before.”  
The raven haired boy could feel his face flushing as he was slowly dragged back into reality. He had just had a panic attack on a plane in front of a bunch of people – and was only calmed down when Lance – of all the problematic people he just encountered today – blocked his vision and shoved shitty indie music into his ears.  
“…Ok…” Keith replied, as monotonous and calm as he could manage.  
“Should I move my arm?” Duh, that’s what he should have been asking him to do – not the other way around.  
“Yes.”  
“Don’t look out the window though.”  
“Yeah.”  
Lance adjusted himself back into his own side of the seat as Keith sat back up, taking the other headphone out and pretending the window wasn't there – choosing to close his eyes and avoid talking about the situation in general. Because that definitely did not just happen. Lance seemed to have gotten the hint, as he didn’t say another word for the next hour. Keith weighed the situation in this timespan, coming to the conclusion that in order to say ‘thank you’ without actually having to say ‘thank you’ to Lance for helping him, he would have to give him what he wanted.  
“Whatever,” Keith exclaimed, breaking the silence and opening his eyes to face Lance for the first time, “fine.”  
“Fine what?” the other boy questioned, confused. Keith sighed at the fact that he had to speak to him more.  
“I want your seat. Take mine. It’s freaking me out.” That was a good enough thank you, right?  
Lance’s eyes lit up like a fortunate child on Christmas morning.  
“Sure thing!” he beamed, “Just climb over me and I’ll scoot under you.” Keith sighed as he hesitantly started to undo his seat buckle, and Lance was about to offer him help just as his fingers unclipped the restraint. Suddenly, before Lance had a chance to undo his own, the plane started jostling at a teetering up and down rate – seemingly getting more aggressive as each second passed. Panic ensued on the entire flight as people started waking from their short naps, grabbing onto the seats, and talking nervously amongst themselves. As soon as the ‘Fasten Seat Belts’ sign came on, Keith was lifted from his feet and almost lunged at the roof before Lance grabbed him and pulled him onto his lap.  
“WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!” Keith was screaming now, but this time it wasn’t just him. Hell, the plane itself sounded like it was screaming.  
“Turbulence!” Lance exclaimed, voice cracking, “I’ve got you, I’ve got you! It’s just – turbu—” another large drop interrupted him, triggering their stomachs to fall like a roller-coaster ride would. Keith fucking hated roller-coasters.  
“Look see, it’s fine—” the boy sounded like he was trying to convince himself now, “holy FUCK did the lights just – flicker?!”  
And thus, they were both panicking. Keith wrapped his arms around Lance’s neck, digging his face into his shoulder and clinging to him with a death grip equal to the one that Lance had around his waist.  
“Flickering lights, oozing walls, I’m going to die without even wearing a seatbelt and we’re going to watch as we plummet to our deaths because were both by the window seat and I’m-gonna-die-on-the-lap-of-some-idiot-“  
“The walls aren’t even oozing and what – just—SHUT UP!” Lance yelled, now that it was his turn to use the phrase.  
“Shut UP – turbulence – happens all the time – and I’m your seatbelt right now – you’re perfectly safe – and Jesus, stop choking me –”  
Dead silence took over the entire cabin, minus a few loud gasps escaping at every jostle. This went on for five minutes (a timespan that felt like hours) before the pilots voice came through the speakers and explained what had happened. Apparently, they ran into rather aggressive gusts of wind – but everything was somehow stable and peachy now. (Keith was not convinced.) As soon as the flight attendants started walking around, Lance took the opportunity to undo his restraint and hop into the window seat, shoving Keith into his old place and buckling him in before buckling himself. The already panicked boy was mortified, eyes widened and breathing uneven, with a death grip on Lance’s thigh that he quickly noted and removed.  
“I’m never going on a plane again,” he gasped.  
Lance took a few breaths himself before replying, “Then how are you gonna get home?”  
“I’ll take a boat. I’ll swim. Anything but this. Anything. Holy shit. I can’t breathe.”  
“It must not have been that bad since the oxygen masks weren’t deployed.”  
After seeing that this didn’t help Keith’s state of mind, Lance handed the earphones to him again. The raven haired boy took them without a second thought, hands shaking. Thankfully, they sat quietly in peace for the rest of the flight – Keith even fell asleep at one point to the shitty indie music.  
The landing wasn’t that bad for him – though he was still not convinced that they didn’t die (all thanks to Lance being accident prone, of course.) Man.  
He hated that guy even more now. \--------------- note (?): Aye this is my first published fic since like middle school & I've also never used Ao3 before so....!!! (Why can't you bold things without editing the html lmao) Update coming soon!! Tumblr: http://voltrvn.tumblr.com/ :) 


End file.
